Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I missed this story 'cos I was not blogging at the time but you want to read and learn from it.. So, so SAD!!! Last week, Cynthia Udoka Osokogu‘s
photograph was all over the internet. She had been missing since late July 2012,
however, the news became viral just a few days ago. We saw Cynthia’s photo
and prayed that like many others we would hear news that she had been found –
alive and well. It was not to be. She is dead. There is a lot of speculation
about what happened to Cynthia and lack of information leads to rumours and
falsities. No one will know ever know the full story except Cynthia but here
is what we can tell you.

What Happened to Cynthia?

24 Year Old Cynthia Osokogu left Abuja in late
July 2012 (According to reports, on the 22nd of July 2012). Like many
enterprising young people, the post-graduate student of Nasarawa State
University was a clothing retailer and had travelled to Lagos to purchase new
stock.

Cynthia had been chatting with some new
“friends” on Facebook for a few months. In the course of their conversations,
they developed a friendship and a level of trust. These young men were also
university students, they seemed normal and promised to host Cynthia when she
came to Lagos.

There is speculation that they paid for her
plane ticket and promised to pay for her hotel as well. Only Cynthia knows if
this is true. Whatever the truth is, Cynthia trusted her new friends and had no
idea that they had sinister plans.

What we know is that, these 2 young men picked
Cynthia up from the airport in Lagos and drove her to a hotel in Festac. At the
hotel, they tied her up, robbed her of all the money she brought to shop for her
business and strangled her to death.

They then left the hotel and quickly deleted
her from their facebook friend list to remove any trace of their
connection.

Her brother, dad and
mum

The hotel found her body and since her ID cards
and mobile phone had been stolen, they could not identify her or call friends
and family. Her body was deposited in a morgue in Lagos.

All this time, her family and friends [Continue after jump]were
praying for her safe return.

How the Killers Were Caught

At some point, one of the culprits accidentally
answered Cynthia’s phone and the call was traced to Festac. Therefore, her
missing person’s police report was submitted to the Area E Command in Festac.
This enabled her family to find her body in the morgue and also led them to the
hotel.

Using CCTV from the hotel, the killers were
identified. According to reports, these two young men are university students
who have now confessed that they killed Cynthia and she is their sixth victim –
the gang reportedly specializes in luring unsuspecting young women, robbing them
of their possessions before killing them. Though there is speculation that their
motive was ritualistic, it appears that it was greed and their main goal was to
rob and kill. The pharmacist who supplied the drugs used on Cynthia and hotel
staff have also been arrested. According to Police spokesperson Ngozi
Braide, “Six people were arrested on Sunday over the incident and
investigations are ongoing”.

What we can learn from this

We have seen so many online comments judging
Cynthia. This could have happened to anyone. With social media, this false sense
of comfort and trust can be very misleading. We know couples who met on Facebook
or BBM groups and are still together. If you ask them if they took security
measures to protect themselves when they first met, many will confess that they
did not. We hear of friendships built on twitter and BBM, where the first
meeting was in the home of one of the friends. The truth is anything can happen.
You have to be savvy and wise.

Cynthia was the only daughter and the last
born of her parents – Ret. Major General Frank & Mrs Joy Osokogu. She was
dotted on by her three elder brothers and parents. She was vibrant and
enterprising. Everyone misses her so much! May Cynthia’s gentle soul rest in
peace.

Tribute to Cynthia by her best friend,
Aishatu Ene Ella

In the last few days I have seen had my heart
torn, stripped and broken in pieces first by the disappearance and death of my
Dearest friend and secondly by the wickedness exhibited by Nigerians, passing
judgment on someone they never knew or met.

When she was officially declared missing we put
up a number online so people with information can call and help out, of over 500
calls we received in 3 days, only 2 of those calls were from people who actually
helped with information. One was my dear friend Nuhu Kwajafa, the other was the
Area Commander who called to inform us of the arrest of the people. The others
were heartbreaking to say this least, I wondered how her mother would have coped
if she had to deal with silliness, pettiness and undeserved hate from strangers,
who just took one look at a lady and decided to judge her based on her
looks.

When the sad news of her death broke, I made a
comment and said I hope “all those who have insisted she was with a man would
have their answer now and let her rest in peace” how wrong I was, They wouldn’t
rest, they would only go back and manufacture a more hurtful and painful story,
formulate more rumors and pass it around as facts, hmmm it is well. I have no
comments for hateful people, I just want to share with you the real Cynthia, the
Cynthia we knew not the one who hateful people have created in the last few
days.

Cynthia was born on 10th of November 1987 to
Gen Frank and Joy – Rita Nkem Osokogu, Udoka as her Mother named her, even as a
baby was a uniting factor in her family. Her Mother had 3 boys before her, she
was the last baby and only girl.

Her Parents had settled in Jos where we
were and still neighbors, We became friends because in those days there were
only few houses in the area. I was the last child and so didn’t have a lot of
playmates my age, her brothers were my mates and Cynthia as the only girl didn’t
have much friends around the neighborhood either so she tagged along when we had
our “adventures” and “yawo”.

Cynthia the Model and Business
Woman

2004 was one of the hardest years for the
Family I was raised with in Jos, Cynthia and her Mom was with me all the way.
They were there to comfort, assist, cook etc.

She was a tall beautiful and slender girl, we
always teased her because even at 13 she was taller than me and the same height
with her brothers, she was a tomboy all the way. Determined, stubborn and
focused. As she grew into her height Her Mum and I playful suggest she try
modeling because of her structure, Cynthia took it seriously, even though her
major focus was education she gave modeling a trial and did quiet well as a
model.

In 2007, she got her first major run way job
and I will never forget the day she called me from Lagos after she had been
paid, she said she wouldn’t want to waste the money and would buy clothes and
bring to school to sell. The first badge of clothes never made it to keffi as
industrious Cynthia who staying with her brother during her visit at Airforce
Quarters sold the clothes to her brother, his colleagues and their friends, she
told me she made 3 times her capital and immediately re-invested, bought more
stock, came to Keffi and rented a shop, that was the birth of her Baby:
“Dresscode”.

I remember I bought her the forms to one of the
national competitions some years ago, she passed the screening passed 2 stages
and called me one day to say she was asked to compromise to get through the next
round, I told her to withdraw and she left. That was in 2011. She never entered
any major pageant after that.

When it came to business Cynthia was midas, she
knew when to make a great sale, she was never at a loss, her business grew from
strength to strength all this while she was not even 21, @ 21 a lot of the
people who now make it a point to formulate such hateful rumors were still
struggling to buy Jamb Results..

Cynthia the Sister and
Daughter

Cynthia was like the baby sister I didnt have,
She was my confidant, stylist and a great comfort. We shared a lot, tears,
smiles, laughs, joys ,sorrows and was always at my service. She was greatly
involved in charity, anytime I sent a text or posted a picture of someone
needing medical support, I could count on Cynthia as one of the first
respondents. When she was in Abuja, she would always come and volunteer, run
errands, always with a smile. When I get to Jos, she will be at the motor park
waiting, Thats if she doesnt pick me up from Abuja. Not to forget my person
Stylist, she either bought or chose most of my clothes, most times my friend say
“you look nice” i tell them “ask Cynthia oh, I have no idea what I am wearing”.
Style has never been a strong point of mine, but if Cynthia bought it or asked
me to buy it I knew it was good and stylish.

To her Mother, Cynthia was her heart. Several
times I will ask Cynthia please dont go to Jos it is volatile and she will reply
me ” Mumsy is alone at home”, or when she is in Jos and there was a fight I
would call and ask her to leave Jos and come and stay a few days with me, she
will say “I cant leave Mumsy alone here now” . That was our Cynthia, Others
first.

When it was time to serve, while others would
work their service to areas full of opportunity like Abuja, Lagos and
Porthacort, Cynthia worked her service to crisis ridden Jos to be close to her
Mother, Is that what a “runsgirl” does?

At age 24, Cynthia had a successful business,
and was running a Post Graduate Program in Public Administration, sadly people
will ignore all that and choose to believe that because she is pretty and Young
she must be a “Runsgirl”, how sad, we Judge people by our own low and shabby
standards.

She earned every kobo she had by good old hard
work, Lets even forget her Father supported her financially but that didn’t turn
her to a spoilt brat she was as determined as ever to make her own mark and earn
her own keep.

The world and people who have no standards can
stand afar and Judge all they want but we know who you are and we love you, we
don’t need to defend You My baby, just setting the records straight.

The security Situation in our country now is
horrible at best, people are kidnapped, robbed and killed everyday, why is it so
hard to believe that a young girl was killed while going to pursue her
legitimate business? If It was a man who was killed would we have come up with
all these stories? If it was an older woman or someone not so attractive would
we still? Her crime is being, young, pretty and a business woman. Hmmm, People,
Have the decency to let us mourn in peace. Please.